Bow played string instruments are known to have existed for approximately five thousand years, as evidenced by the Ravanastron of ancient India. Bow played string instruments evolved over the centuries, and are known to have existed in one form or another at various places in Asia, Europe and Africa.
The violin, in substantially its current structural form, is believed to have originated in Brescia, Italy, in the sixteenth century. Gasparo da Salo who lived from approximately 1555 to approximately 1610 is often credited with being the father of the current violin and of the Brescian school of violin making. The most famous violins originated in Cremona, Italy, beginning in the late sixteenth century and extending into the eighteenth century. The Cremona school of violin making is believed to have been started by Andreas Amati who lived from approximately 1520 to approximately 1580. The violin making techniques of Andreas Amati were passed to his sons Anthony and Jerome Amati and then to Jerome's son Nicholas Amati who was born in 1596 and died in 1684. The art of violin making improved through these generations, and the violins of Nicholas Amati were widely known and valued in Europe in his lifetime. The pupils or apprentices of Nicholas Amati included such famous violin makers as Andrew Guarnerius (1630-1695) and Antonio Stradivari (1644-1737) who is widely acknowledged as the greatest violin maker of all time. The Cremona violins of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and particularly the violins of Stradivari have increased substantially in value since they were made. Violins that were sold originally by Stradivari for the equivalent of $20-$50 now command prices of $500,000-$1,000,000.
The increasing value of the violins made by the Cremona masters such as Stradivari is largely attributable to the enduring quality of those instruments. In particular, the violins crafted by Stradivari and other Cremona masters are widely acknowledged for their superior tonal qualities, and their brilliantly lustrous finish which have lasted for the 200-300 year lives of the instruments.
Despite the many volumes written on the secrets of the Cremona violin masters, much of their violin making is truly a lost art. In particular, although violin makers and craftsmen have been able to produce violins dimensionally identical to the Stradivari violins, craftsmen have been unable to learn or duplicate the secrets of the tone and the finish of the violins associated with Stradivari and the other Cremona masters. It is reported that Stradivari had maintained a written record of his finishing secrets, and had kept this record hidden in a family Bible. After the death of Antonio Stradivari in 1737, the secret document was discovered by his son who promptly destroyed the document to ensure that his father's art could never be duplicated.
It is generally acknowledged that the finish applied to the violin affects both the appearance and the tone of the instrument. Hill et al in their work entitled "Antonio Stradivari His Life and His Work (1644-1737)" explained that: "It should be remembered that a violin must vibrate freely, yet not too freely, as would be the case with a newly unvarnished instrument when first in use. Clothe it too thickly with even a good varnish, and the tone will be deadened, or with one too hard in texture, and the result will be that the tone will prove hard and metallic. Or again, cover it with a too soft oil varnish, and you will mute the tone of your instrument for a generation, if not forever."
Many attempts have been made to explain the lost art of Cremona violin finishes and to develop new finishes that approach the tonal qualities and appearances of the Cremona violins. Hill et al, in their above identified work, hypothesized that Stradivari merely employed available oil-based varnishes and that the superior visual and tonal results are attributable to the master's fine hand and application techniques. The patent literature includes several complex attempts to define a finish which yields visual and acoustical results comparable to the old Cremona violins. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 1,083,510 which issued to Tietgen on Jan. 6, 1914 indicates that the violin should receive two coats of a solution formed initially with nine parts alcohol, three parts nitric acid and six parts turpentine. The solution is allowed to stand at least six months until crystals form on the bottom. The remaining liquid is decanted and then added to a solution of three parts gum mastic and nine parts turpentine. After two coats of the resulting finish are applied to the violin, the instrument is dried for six days, after which a coat of commercial nitric acid is applied. Additional coats of hot varnish are then applied to the violin, with still additional coats of alcohol applied to selected parts of the instrument.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,234,989 issued to Wickstrom on July 31, 1917, and suggests that the most desirable coating is achieved by ensuring that the varnish does not become intimately connected to the instrument. To achieve this end, U.S. Pat. No. 1,234,989 teaches an initial coating of hot beeswax. Excess beeswax is rubbed off, and the instrument is next coated with plural layers of a mastic dissolved in alcohol. The reference teaches that the mastic layer will not adhere to the beeswax, and as a result, the substrate consisting of the wood and the beeswax can vibrate free of the top coats.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,622,484 which issued to Bamberger on Mar. 29, 1927 suggests finishing the violin with any available coating material such as shellac, varnish, lacquer or the like that has been treated with a fruit or vegetable juice, and preferably onion juice.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,836,089 issued to Schweitzer on Dec. 15, 1931 and suggests that the varnish employed on the violin body has little effect on the tone of the instrument, and further suggests that the treatment of the sounding board with ultraviolet rays is the secret to enhanced acoustics of the Italian violins. On the other hand, U.S. Pat. No. 856,533 which issued to Lawrence on June 11, 1907 suggests that the enhanced tone is achieved by treating the interior of the violin with a composition consisting of alcohol, gum of guaiac, orange peels and ether.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,252,863 which issued to Song on Feb. 24, 1981 suggests that the desirable tones are achieved by treating the wood of the violin with heat for one to two months, coating the treated violin with iodine, and subsequently heating the violin again at 300.degree. F. for from two to seven days. The wood is then scraped and coated with an undefined varnish material.
The non-patent literature also is replete with divergent examples of the ideal way to treat and/or coat a violin. A typical example is an article dated Oct. 29, 1917 in the "Music Trades" publication which reports that the violin is coated with a combination of varnish, Chinese amber and acid. More recently, it has been suggested that the brilliant luster associated with the Cremona violins is attributable to a fungus that existed in Italy at that time and that affected the chemistry of the wood and/or a varnish applied to the wood. Further discussions of violin finishes are given in the above identified Hill et al work and in "Violin Making: As It Was, And Is" by Ed. Heron-Allen. The disclosure of the prior art identified above is incorporated herein by reference.
None of the finishing methods or compositions described above have received either commercial success or critical acclaim from people skilled in the art of violin making and playing. As a result, the vast majority of violins continue to be finished with spirit based varnishes. These varnish finished violins simply do not approach the visual or acoustical qualities associated with the violins of Stradivari and the other Cremona masters.
Shellac has been available as a coating material since as early as 1300 B.C., where it was used, in one form or another, in southern and southeastern Asia. Shellac is formed from a gum or resin exuded from Croton or Fiscus species trees indigenous to southern Asia. In particular, the gum is exuded from incisions made by female insects of the Coccus lacca species. The gum is soluble in alcohol to yield a transparent or semi-transparent coating. The bodies of these same insects were used to form lac dye which was a coloring medium for wood.
Lac dye is generally unavailable today as a commercial product, and various synthetic dyes are used for coloring mediums. Lac gum, on the other hand, is known to be mixed with an alcohol base to yield a quick drying protective "shellac" coating. White or bleached lac gum is known to provide a protective shellac coating having a high degree of transparency.
Although shellac has been readily available for centuries, it is generally not considered to be an acceptable coating material for fine and valuable wood products. In particular, shellac is known to yield a noticeably imperfect finish in the presence of water. Thus, shellac generally cannot be applied in environments of high humidity. Furthermore, even a fully cured shellac finish does not weather well in the presence of water. For these reasons, shellac is not commercially used for finishing fine pieces of furniture or violins.
In view of the above, it is an object of the subject invention to provide a violin which has aesthetic and acoustical properties similar to or better than the violins crafted in Cremona, Italy, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
It is another object of the subject invention to provide a method for coating a violin to achieve a deep and brilliant luster and to provide exceptional acoustical characteristics.
A further object of the subject invention is to provide a violin with a deep luster that appears to be generated from within the coating.
Still a further object of the subject invention is to provide a violin with an extremely durable finish.
An additional object of the subject invention is to provide a violin which when hand rubbed will retain its original luster.
Still another object of the subject invention is to provide a method for efficiently coating violins to yield an instrument with enhanced visual and acoustical properties.